By Jacqueline Reis TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
jreis@telegram.com
WORCESTER— Worcester Academy may be the best-known boarding school in the city, but there is another local school that draws students from far away and which reopened its dorm this year: Bais Chana, a tiny Jewish school on Midland Avenue for girls in Grades 7-12.
The school is part of Yeshiva Academy, which accepts students from all strands of Judaism, but the girls at Bais Chana live by the Chabad-Lubavitch tradition: They keep their knees, elbows and collarbones covered, they don’t sing and dance in front of the opposite sex (a restriction specific to females), and many of them voluntarily surround themselves with Jewish culture, from the music in their iPods to the early-morning spiritual studies they organize themselves.
Their lifestyle, which might seem extreme, if not sexist, to outsiders, is remarkable in and of itself. But equally notable is the girls’ commitment to it. They know there’s a cultural gulf between themselves and other teenage girls, and they don’t look down on others; they’re just not eager to live like them.
Sarah R. Sherman, 15, of Philadelphia, explained it this way: “We don’t feel like it’s an extra burden that we can’t wear certain things. It’s just part of who we are,” she said. She’s happy she doesn’t look like some of the people she sees at the mall and elsewhere, but at the same time, she added, “You don’t degrade anybody just for the way they are.”
The girls aren’t cookie-cutter copies of one another. Their personality comes through in small ways, like their socks, which are sometimes colorfully striped and paired with shoes of a contrasting color, or their earrings, which range from the unnoticeable to a fashionable chandelier style.
Small opportunities like those helped sell Sarah’s roommate, Chaya Brocha Morozow, 15, of Brooklyn, on coming to Worcester. “You wear your uniform, but you get to put your personality into it,” she said. She used to go to a school with more than 500 students in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, home to Lubavitch headquarters. She was surrounded by people who live as her family does, but she wasn’t happy at the school, which she described as a “factory.” Her mother, Elke (Morozow) Nathan, had heard of Bais Chana when she herself was in high school and thought an out-of-town environment might be good for her “on-the-go, jolly kind of girl.”
It seems to have worked. Chaya Brocha has settled into the dorm, with its mezuzahs on the doorways and its seven close-knit inhabitants. “The school doesn’t have any cliques… Everyone’s friends with everyone,” she said.
One of her friends in the dorm is Lifshy Shuchat, 15, a shy girl with a beautiful singing voice who used to go to the same school Chaya Brocha did in Brooklyn. Lifshy will play Baron Rothschild in Bais Chana’s production of “Little Orphan Chanie”, which is its take on Broadway’s “Annie.” The musical is usually a Broadway show rewritten to make it Jewish, so Annie became Chanie, and Daddy Warbucks was replaced with Baron Rothschild. (To get a flavor of their sense of humor, consider that past shows have included a Jewish version of “Grease” in which the song “Beauty School Dropout” became “Hebrew School Dropout.”)
It’s all part of a world that for many of the girls is 24-7 Jewish. For day students, it varies more by family and individual, with some girls listening to pop music and watching TV and others not. But school days are long. They include both secular academics and religious studies and last from 8:15 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Other activities include gymnastics (in an all-female setting), the Big and Little Sisters Program with the younger students, a student-organized program for spiritual growth, and visits to a local old-age home. On weekends, there are shabbatons, or retreats, focused around the Sabbath.
Sarah and many of the other girls fit easily into activities such as leading younger children through the Yeshiva’s annual matzo factory, where they teach children how to knead and roll out matzo quickly so the dough doesn’t rise. Some of the Yeshiva’s first- through third-graders responded to Sarah and Chaya Brocha like favorite camp counselors, with Chaya Brocha’s group chanting her name.
The girls’ success in such programs is by design. “When they’re going to grow up, they’re going to have to organize different evenings and things,” explained Principal Chani Fogelman. “They’ll feel confident to stand in front of a crowd, to take leadership.”
Sarah hopes to run programs at a Chabad house someday, and it was a Chabad network that first brought the school to her father’s attention.
“It’s not that rules are imposed upon them, but it’s a lifestyle and a value system that they nurture within each student,” her father, Rabbi Shraga Sherman, said of the school. “It’s kind of part of a family team.”
Mrs. Fogelman accepts very few of the girls who apply, and the student body includes people from as far away as Winnipeg, Manitoba. “I only take girls with high academics, and I do a lot of research” into the girls’ character, behavior and academics, she said. She prefers that the school grow slowly, and it has been tiny at times. Last year, it had just ninth- and 10th-graders and fewer than 10 girls in the entire school, said Rochie Shaw, 15, of Worcester, who has gone to the Yeshiva since preschool. This year, however, the seventh- and eighth-grade girls moved from the Yeshiva into the Bais Chana building, the dorm reopened, and enrollment rose to 20 in Grades 7-11.
“This year’s one of the best years so far,” said Chaya Liberow, 13, of Worcester, who has also gone to the school since preschool.
One thing the girls don’t worry about in their busy lives is time for a boyfriend, because they won’t date until they’re ready to marry. “I don’t think it’s good to go out when you’re 14,” Rochie said.
“It’s like a waste of time. There’s no purpose,” added Chaya Liberow.
Exactly how a girl will meet her mate varies by family. Some go to a matchmaker, while others find their own. The timing also varies depending on what path a girl takes when she graduates from high school. Some might marry, while others will go to a Jewish women’s college in Israel or Australia first.
The girls are taught that they can be anything — doctor, president — but their first duty will always be to their family, Mrs. Fogelman said. That family may well turn out to be large: Mrs. Nathan, for instance, describes her seven children as “only a small family,” and many of the girls at Bais Chana have four or more siblings.
Whatever her choices after high school, Sarah said Bais Chana is good preparation. “I think it gives me a good background for life when I’m older,” she said. “Maybe some people might think we are forced to do a lot of things that we don’t want to… (But) we live normal lives.”
Contact Jacqueline Reis by e-mail at jreis@telegram.com.
jreis@telegram.com
WORCESTER— Worcester Academy may be the best-known boarding school in the city, but there is another local school that draws students from far away and which reopened its dorm this year: Bais Chana, a tiny Jewish school on Midland Avenue for girls in Grades 7-12.
The school is part of Yeshiva Academy, which accepts students from all strands of Judaism, but the girls at Bais Chana live by the Chabad-Lubavitch tradition: They keep their knees, elbows and collarbones covered, they don’t sing and dance in front of the opposite sex (a restriction specific to females), and many of them voluntarily surround themselves with Jewish culture, from the music in their iPods to the early-morning spiritual studies they organize themselves.
Their lifestyle, which might seem extreme, if not sexist, to outsiders, is remarkable in and of itself. But equally notable is the girls’ commitment to it. They know there’s a cultural gulf between themselves and other teenage girls, and they don’t look down on others; they’re just not eager to live like them.
Sarah R. Sherman, 15, of Philadelphia, explained it this way: “We don’t feel like it’s an extra burden that we can’t wear certain things. It’s just part of who we are,” she said. She’s happy she doesn’t look like some of the people she sees at the mall and elsewhere, but at the same time, she added, “You don’t degrade anybody just for the way they are.”
The girls aren’t cookie-cutter copies of one another. Their personality comes through in small ways, like their socks, which are sometimes colorfully striped and paired with shoes of a contrasting color, or their earrings, which range from the unnoticeable to a fashionable chandelier style.
Small opportunities like those helped sell Sarah’s roommate, Chaya Brocha Morozow, 15, of Brooklyn, on coming to Worcester. “You wear your uniform, but you get to put your personality into it,” she said. She used to go to a school with more than 500 students in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, home to Lubavitch headquarters. She was surrounded by people who live as her family does, but she wasn’t happy at the school, which she described as a “factory.” Her mother, Elke (Morozow) Nathan, had heard of Bais Chana when she herself was in high school and thought an out-of-town environment might be good for her “on-the-go, jolly kind of girl.”
It seems to have worked. Chaya Brocha has settled into the dorm, with its mezuzahs on the doorways and its seven close-knit inhabitants. “The school doesn’t have any cliques… Everyone’s friends with everyone,” she said.
One of her friends in the dorm is Lifshy Shuchat, 15, a shy girl with a beautiful singing voice who used to go to the same school Chaya Brocha did in Brooklyn. Lifshy will play Baron Rothschild in Bais Chana’s production of “Little Orphan Chanie”, which is its take on Broadway’s “Annie.” The musical is usually a Broadway show rewritten to make it Jewish, so Annie became Chanie, and Daddy Warbucks was replaced with Baron Rothschild. (To get a flavor of their sense of humor, consider that past shows have included a Jewish version of “Grease” in which the song “Beauty School Dropout” became “Hebrew School Dropout.”)
It’s all part of a world that for many of the girls is 24-7 Jewish. For day students, it varies more by family and individual, with some girls listening to pop music and watching TV and others not. But school days are long. They include both secular academics and religious studies and last from 8:15 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Other activities include gymnastics (in an all-female setting), the Big and Little Sisters Program with the younger students, a student-organized program for spiritual growth, and visits to a local old-age home. On weekends, there are shabbatons, or retreats, focused around the Sabbath.
Sarah and many of the other girls fit easily into activities such as leading younger children through the Yeshiva’s annual matzo factory, where they teach children how to knead and roll out matzo quickly so the dough doesn’t rise. Some of the Yeshiva’s first- through third-graders responded to Sarah and Chaya Brocha like favorite camp counselors, with Chaya Brocha’s group chanting her name.
The girls’ success in such programs is by design. “When they’re going to grow up, they’re going to have to organize different evenings and things,” explained Principal Chani Fogelman. “They’ll feel confident to stand in front of a crowd, to take leadership.”
Sarah hopes to run programs at a Chabad house someday, and it was a Chabad network that first brought the school to her father’s attention.
“It’s not that rules are imposed upon them, but it’s a lifestyle and a value system that they nurture within each student,” her father, Rabbi Shraga Sherman, said of the school. “It’s kind of part of a family team.”
Mrs. Fogelman accepts very few of the girls who apply, and the student body includes people from as far away as Winnipeg, Manitoba. “I only take girls with high academics, and I do a lot of research” into the girls’ character, behavior and academics, she said. She prefers that the school grow slowly, and it has been tiny at times. Last year, it had just ninth- and 10th-graders and fewer than 10 girls in the entire school, said Rochie Shaw, 15, of Worcester, who has gone to the Yeshiva since preschool. This year, however, the seventh- and eighth-grade girls moved from the Yeshiva into the Bais Chana building, the dorm reopened, and enrollment rose to 20 in Grades 7-11.
“This year’s one of the best years so far,” said Chaya Liberow, 13, of Worcester, who has also gone to the school since preschool.
One thing the girls don’t worry about in their busy lives is time for a boyfriend, because they won’t date until they’re ready to marry. “I don’t think it’s good to go out when you’re 14,” Rochie said.
“It’s like a waste of time. There’s no purpose,” added Chaya Liberow.
Exactly how a girl will meet her mate varies by family. Some go to a matchmaker, while others find their own. The timing also varies depending on what path a girl takes when she graduates from high school. Some might marry, while others will go to a Jewish women’s college in Israel or Australia first.
The girls are taught that they can be anything — doctor, president — but their first duty will always be to their family, Mrs. Fogelman said. That family may well turn out to be large: Mrs. Nathan, for instance, describes her seven children as “only a small family,” and many of the girls at Bais Chana have four or more siblings.
Whatever her choices after high school, Sarah said Bais Chana is good preparation. “I think it gives me a good background for life when I’m older,” she said. “Maybe some people might think we are forced to do a lot of things that we don’t want to… (But) we live normal lives.”
Contact Jacqueline Reis by e-mail at jreis@telegram.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment